Experience of play-off defeats can make it third time lucky for Preston

The advert offering season tickets on Preston's website reads: "One club. One aim. One ticket." After moving eight points clear of Wolves and Cardiff in the fight for the final play-off position, that could encompass welcoming Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in the Premiership next season.

Preston's task remains daunting but they can take courage from West Ham, the team they lost to in last year's play-off final. The Hammers had been defeated in Cardiff a season earlier but recovered to finish sixth and win promotion. North End are due some luck, having also been defeated in the 2001 final by Bolton.

Graham Alexander, their captain, said: "I've been to the play-off final twice already. It's heartbreaking to get beaten when you're so close to the Premiership. If we get there this year hopefully our fortune will change." Inexperience got the better of Billy Davies's young side at the Millennium Stadium a year ago but Alexander says lessons have been learned. "Last year it was only me and Paul McKenna who had played in it before but we've now got all the lads with the experience of last year. We'll attack it a little bit differently this time."

Remarkably, Preston have tightened their grip on sixth place despite having up to a dozen players missing recently. Their three best strikers were all absent against Coventry. "Each day there's someone else dropping out with illness or injury," Alexander said. "We've been up against it with the amount of players we've lost."

Brett Ormerod was the latest to succumb to sickness but it opened the door to Simon Whaley, the winger signed from Bury in January. Davies moved the 20-year-old up front in only his second start for the club and he responded with his first goal. Picking up Patrick Agyemang's pass he powered the ball into the far corner from 25 yards."My first goal for the club and to get a win, you can't ask for anything better," he said.

The strike caught most inside the Ricoh Arena by surprise but not Whaley's captain. "He does it all the time in training and he's got a lot of power in his boots. When we do shooting after training he absolutely smashes everything that comes in his path. He's got the hardest shot at the club."

Coventry were unbeaten in a dozen home league games but it proved unlucky 13 against Preston, who had not won three away points since mid-January. It ended Coventry's hopes of reaching the play-offs, leaving Robert Page to tip the Lancashire side for promotion.

"Preston are a funny club," he said. "They not as big as Wolves in how people talk about them but they're the dangerous ones and the team to look out for. They've not really got any individual stars but they work together. They've been consistent in the last couple of years and this season might be the one for them. They could sneak up on the outside and get promoted."

That is Preston's aim. What next season's aim is will soon be discovered.